Nowadays video contents are provided to the user via a huge amount of video sources. Cable, satellite and broadcast TV provides for TV programs via different TV channels. Optical and magnetic supports (like CD, DVD, Blu-RAY Disc and tapes), as well as mass memories (like hard discs and USB keys) allows storing movies that can be reproduces by a reading device. The Internet is also a huge source of video information: a user can easily download movies or view TV programs that are transmitted in streaming by a web server.
Different devices can therefore be used to watch different video contents: ordinary set-top-boxes and TV sets are used to watch broadcast or cable TV signals, while personal computers, palm or smart phones are used to watch video provided via IP.
In this scenario, new apparatuses have been developed which can be used both as a computer for navigating the Internet and as a TV set for watching video content.
As an example, US patent application US2001/0034883 discloses systems and methods for displaying Internet contents associated with television programming. In one embodiment the system comprises a set-top-box connected to an ordinary TV set and controlled via an ordinary remote control. The set-top-box includes hardware and/or software for providing the user with a graphical user interface, by which the user can access various Internet system network services, browse the Web, send e-mail, and otherwise access the Internet. The set-top-box is configured so as to display concurrently web contents and television programming.
This system has the drawback that displaying of web contents concurrently with TV programs requires a huge processing capacity of the set-top-box and is not always optimal. In particular, motion of the video content can annoy the user who's looking at a web page or at a text.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,181,756 by the same inventor, discloses that by using the remote control the user can decide to watch either the TV program or the web page associated to the TV program. In this case watching of one content exclude watching of the other.
In both solutions disclosed by US2001/0034883 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,181,756, a further problem arises: while TV set are of big dimensions in order to be watched at great distance (typically from 1.5 m to 3 m), Internet contents are often thought for a user that seats at few tens of centimeters from the screen; in this cases displaying is not always good.
Additionally, the STBs disclosed by US2001/0034883 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,181,756 requires a web browser or a mail client to be loaded on the STB, therefore manufacturing costs of these apparatuses increases while performance and reliability can be affected by the presence of different independent software applications.
In the same field of video systems, US 2002/0154888 discloses a remote control for a digital video recorder (DVR) including an integrated display screen configured to display a list of programs. The list may be an EPG, a list of programs to be recorded, or a list of recorded programs. A user can navigate through the list to select a television program, as well as various digital recording playback operations to be performed for the selected television program. In this solution, the list of programs is received by the STB together with TV programs transmitted by a broadcast center. This solution is proposed to allow a user of a DVR to operate it without interfering with or obscuring the television program being currently displayed.
The remote control known from US 2002/0154888 is not used to display video contents, but just a list of characters corresponding to an EPG or a list of programs. In particular, this solution is not thought for displaying Internet video contents.
There's therefore the need for a video system which allows displaying Internet contents in a more efficient way.